CRAIG NEIDORF DEFENSE FUND
Most of you know about the PHRACK trial and Craig Neidorf, the
publisher of PHRACK. Craig put his neck on the line to provide
timely, interesting, and helpful information to the phreak/hacker
community. The government decided to put a stop to that flow of
information so last summer they arrested Craig for publishing a
PHRACK article on Bell South's Emergency 911 system, an article
which contained a document which was illegally downloaded from Bell
South's computer system.
The government's case fell apart after it was revealed that the
document, originally valued at $79,449 by Bell South, was
obtainable by dialing an 800 number and paying $13. This, and the
fact that Neidorf was not the one who accessed Bell South's
computer, caused the government to drop the charges and set Craig
Neidorf free.
Good news, right? Well it is and it isn't. While the government
lost its case, Craig Neidorf will no longer be publishing PHRACK,
so the government still wins. The fact is that although Craig won
in court, he must still pay his own attorney's fees. His original
bill reached over $200,000! The law firm that he had retained found
ways to reduce $100,000 off of that amount, but Craig and his
family have still paid $35,000 to one firm, $8,000 to another, and
have roughly $65,000 left to pay off. THIS IS AFTER "WINNING" IN
COURT!
No, he cannot sue the government for this money. He has to pay it
himself. A lot of people seem to think that the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) is going to help him with his legal bills. No way.
The EFF does not want to be perceived as a "hacker defense fund" so
they are trying to distance themselves from the case. Their only
help in the matter was to pay for court motions filed by the EFF's
law firm on Neidorf's behalf concerning the First Ammendment. THE
EFF HAS NO PLANS AT THIS TIME TO HELP PAY NEIDORF'S ATTORNEY FEES.
What this means is that Craig Neidorf, after being harrassed and
arrested by the government for PUBLISHING A MAGAZINE, will shut his
magazine down and pay approximately $100,000 in attorney fees EVEN
THOUGH HE WON HIS COURT BATTLE.
If you're as outraged by this as I am, I want you to know that you
can do something about it. You can show Neidorf how much you valued
PHRACK and how outraged you are about what happened to him by
sending money to the Neidorf Defense Fund. Every cent that you send
will be used to defray his attorney fees. The address is:
NEIDORF DEFENSE FUND
Attn: Sheldon Zenner
Katten, Muchin & Zavis
525 West Monroe Street #1600
Chicago, Illinois 60606-3693
Checks *MUST* be payable to "Katten, Muchin & Zavis" and have
"Neidorf Defense Fund" written in the memo field.
You can help even more by downloading this message and uploading it
to as many other BBSes as you possibly can. It's available on
&TOTSE, 415/935-5845, as NEIDORFD.ZIP. Also, if you're a caller on
&TOTSE and you send Neidorf a check for $25 or more, send me a
photocopy of the cancelled check and I'll give you 250 file
transfer credits. &TOTSE's mailing address is: Jeff Hunter, & the
Temple of the Screaming Electron, P.O. Box 5378, Walnut Creek, CA,
94596.